I’m moving some of my more useful blog post material into some fixed pages that I’ll update from time to time. I like the idea that it’s safe in one place and not spread around all over teh last 5 years of material.
If you’re reading this on a computer you should see a list over there on the right 👉
If you’re looking at it on the phone it’ll probably be a few page-lengths down there 👇
And if you’re reading it on an etch-a-sketch you probably aren’t seeing it anywhere so here are the ones I’ve done so far (but there will be more soon)
This is a bit of a silly one. Notes down at the bottom. Thanks again ThisCatIsConfused for correcting it (and having the patience to read my silly word games!)
*=i just wrote “apesar de ser masculino but you have to say” de sexo masculino”. Probably would have been easier to say “apesar de ser homem” really, eh?
So what’s the joke?
I’d better explain for the benefit of anyone who is confused by the unfamiliar vocabulary that this is a sort of long-running pun: I’ve swapped the word “abba” onto other similar words like “apesar”, “acabo” and “abandonámos” and occasionally swapped letters in the other direction too. In each case, I correct myself immediately after but if you’re still at an early stage of your journey it probably looks a bit confusing so I’m sorry about that!
I joined in one of the Bertrand training courses I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It’s part of a series on feminism, looking at the subject of the portuguese suffragette movement. I thought I’d try and listen in on the lecture and learn something about history. However, the person running it asked people to put on their cameras and mics so they could participate and I thought well, I don’t really want to be the only foreigner and in all likelihood the only bloke if it’s going to be a round-table discussion, so I scarpered. Oh well, that’s fifteen euros down the drain!
*=nĂŁo ser capaz, meaning “to be incapable” always seems like an unwieldy way of saying you can’t do something so in usually go for “nĂŁo consigo” or “nĂŁo posso” but it’s often a more natural way of saying it.
**=I wrote “fazer um compromisso” (make a compromise) but “assumir” is the better verb to use
***=I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this book before even when I wrote a whole blog post defending him from some guy who criticised him a couple of years back, but it’s good stuff. I think the idea of language hacking is pretty mainstream these days, but if you haven’t already come across it, that’s a pretty good place to start.
Listening to A Morte do Papa earlier today I had a bit of a double take thinking they were talking about the Church of “A MĂŁe do Rebentor”. Rebentar means “burst” or “explode” so rebentor would be an exploder, I suppose. It was a weird image until a couple of minutes later my braincells kicked in and I realised it must be “redentor” (redeemer)
*=the correction changes this to Centro de SaĂşde, which makes sense, but it actually was a leisure centre! Weird but true!
**=I wrote sermos because we’re permanently (?) protected. Bad Call!
***=”há quem” is one of those phrases that I always want to pluralise. “There are those who have doubts” sounds like it refers to many people but in Portuguese it’s “há quem tem dĂşvidas” as if it was just one person or if that mass of people were acting as a unit.
****=my natural inclination was to write this as “desconfiar a vacina” (distrust the vaccine) or maybe “desconfiar na vacina” (lack trust IN the vaccine) but the correct way is “desconfiar da vacina” (distrust OF the vaccine) which ties back to previous remarks bout differences between PT and EN uses of prepositions…
*****=I did wonder if “An army of volunteers” would be an expression in Portuguese, but the corrector seemed to know what I was talking about so that’s OK. It’s intuitive enough, I guess.
Quick review of this one. As it says in the text, you can enjoy the repetitive use of the imperfect subjunctive and call it homework for the B2 exam. It’s pretty basic apart from that though because it’s a children’s book.
Summary of an article in Observador with notes at the bottom
Este artigo no site do jornal Observador lembra-nos que determinadas temas surgem em todas as sociedades modernas hoje em dia. Há quem prestam atenção Ă s letras de cancões infantis e detetam os traços de um passado mais cruel que a presente. O artigo fala destes traços sob a rubrica de “politicamente incorreto” mas para ser mais exato, as letras contĂŞm referencias a violĂŞncia domestica, crueldade para com os animais* e racismo. Há muitos exemplos no artigo, alguns triviais (tal como “atirei o pau ao gato”) e alguns mais nojentos.
*=”crueldade para com os animais” is an interesting contruction. There are two prepositions in there. Literally, it would be “cruelty for with the animals”, which sounds weird to anglophone ears, but does seem to be legit. A bit of research and a question on a r/Portuguese shows that it’s a prepositional phrase meaning “in relation to” – CiberdĂşvidas article here. It appears in the wikipedia article about cruelty but the main title of the article is just “Crueldade Com Animais” so obviously both make sense. By the way, it’s worth noting that brazilians spell “pára” (meaning “stop”) without the accent and in theory portuguese people should spell it that way too now, but it’s the most-ignored aspect of the Acordo Ortográfico because it’s so confusing. However, you might come across a phrase like “para com isso” which means “stop that”, so try not to get confused if you do!
**=I struggle to come up with a good translation for “lengalenga”. I’ve seen it explained as a kind of rhyming mnemonic, but I don’t think it’s that: it seems to refer to repetitive chants like rhymes that aren’t quite nursery rhymes – like “ip dip sky blue, it is not you” or “i see England, I see France, I see Colin’s underpants”. That kind of thing, I believe.
***=hm, branqueamento = whitewashing or sanitising something but in the context of imposing racist songs on black students it sounds like a pun which wasn’t my intention when I wrote it
For no real reason, I decided to look for a portuguese workout channel to use instead of my normal Joe Wicks routine for a change. What I found was that the market seems to be dominated by Lidl, the supermarket chain. It’s quite a canny way to build a relationship with your customers, I suppose, during lockdown. There are dozens of videos on there. Here’s a basic playlist for example, but there are loads more, each with a long list of workout videos from little shorties like this guy doing power curtsies with his very patient dog…
…through yoga and pilates
…to half hour circuit sessions
They even have a few hosted by this guy Jorge Fonseca who is an actual world Judo champion who… what? Runs the deli counter at the weekend for a bit of extra cash? I dunno.
If you prefer your workouts without any unexpected items in the bagging area, the only other channel I know is “Dicas do Salgueiro”. He has the same beard/long hair combination as Joe but he’s got a slightly different style – he does crossfit videos rather than mucking about at home with his kids in the shot, dressed as Scooby Doo. I was having a laugh at how seriously he seemed to be taking himself in this video but then the last few seconds of it when he goes to put the sword away made me warm to him.
So I think I might see if I can go through one of his (hour long!) videos from the Treino em Casa Quarantena playlist one day when I’m feeling energetic.
